In
today’s frantic marketplace it’s easy to miss the true winners.
So
many organisations spend so much money advertising, hyping and interrupting
across a multitude of media channels, that we can begin to mistakenly believe
that these organisations are hyper successful, and that we need to behave in a
similar way in order to compete.
But,
when you do some proper research, nothing can be further from the truth.
The
companies that rely on promotions and advertising to sell their goods or
services are the ones that are the most vulnerable, and the most likely to
fail in the long-term. They have
built a business model on marketing, hype and interrupting. And the minute they stop doing this will be
the minute that their customers desert them in favour of someone else who
happens to be shouting louder / selling cheaper at the moment.
A
good example of this philosophy and practice can be seen in the branded fast
food market. Take away the marketing,
and many of these brands will die almost overnight.
Anyone
remember Wimpy?
So,
what’s the alternative?
We
suggest that in the world of two-way mass communication, driven by the Internet
and social media, the power of customer reputation and referral is the strongest
sales and marketing force of all time.
This
way of doing business is called ‘Slow Selling’
‘Slow
Selling’ is all about systems to focus on loyalty and reputation consistently
and obsessively, above everything else …
No,
it won’t make you a fortune overnight, but it will drive long-term high growth
in sales, repeat business, reputation, referrals, and continual low risk
innovation around your core product and market area.
And
this WILL make you a fortune over the long term…
Some
examples:
- Google achieved market domination through
customer experience, not clever marketing
- Amazon drive continual customer loyalty and
sales growth through customer experience, not promotions
- Apple drive amazing levels of customer
loyalty and cross selling through customer experience, not special offers
Of
course, this is all blindingly obvious common sense, but whenever has common
sense been common practice?
We
know this is true, yet we are consistently misled into falling for the hype,
promotions and offers, both as operators and customers!
Your
challenge, if you want to be truly successful and profitable in the
long-term is to slow down, stop trying to drive sales growth through
advertising, fast offers and special deals, and, instead, focus on “slow
selling”.
Slow down and build it inch by inch every week, using the ‘Slow Selling’
processes.
Because, in the long run, your customer always has a choice, and it’s
getting wider and deeper every day.
If you’d like some help in putting these ideas into practice, please join our mailing list or buy the book or contact us for bespoke advice.
Here\’s a video of Guy Arnold talking about this point in a 6 minute Video:
